Light weight seating furniture construction with so-called memory effect

ABSTRACT

Light weight seating furniture ( 5 ) construction with a very high memory effect. The seating furniture is light weight and when constructed as a sphere completely shape-retaining after the removal of the seating load and thereof easy to transport, e.g. by rolling over the floor. The light weight seating furniture ( 5, 9 ) construction comprises a shell construction which is deformable under seating load and which is filled up with an number of relatively small shape-retaining particles for support and advancement of the temporary shape-retaining property of this shell construction when a person is positioned thereupan. The shell construction consists of geometrically shaped air permeable shell shaping sheet elements ( 7, 8 ) manufactured from porous natural or plastic material with spring back property, as a resuit of which the shell construction obtains the property of a flexible skeleton structure with memory effect. The particles are manufactured from natural of plastic materials (like polystyrene foam particles) and are optionally packed in a suitable air permeable cover. The external surface of the shell construction may be provided with a desired decorative appearance, like a cover ( 10 ) or a printing Furthermore the seating furniture ( 5, 9 ) can have a high aesthetic value and is therefore also suitable for advertising and marketing purposes.

This invention relates to light weight seating furniture with a verystrong memory effect. The seating furniture obtained by application ofthis seating furniture construction is of light weight and whenconstructed as a sphere completely shape-retaining after the removal ofthe seating load and thereby easy to transport, e.g. by rolling over thefloor. Furthermore the seating furniture may have a high aesthetic valueand is therefore also suitable for advertising and marketing purposes.

A known spherical light weight seating furniture is constructed fromhollow, non-porous or inflatable spherical parts manufactured fromnatural (e.g. rubber) or plastic materials (e.g. PVC) respectively. Toobtain the required sphere-shape the hollow internal space is filledwith a gas, as e.g. air, and sealed with an air valve mounted on theexternal surface of the seating furniture. The spring action, in otherwords, the seating comfort of this seating furniture is determined bythe combination of the gas pressure within the completely closedinternal space and by the (usual high) required surface tension of thematerial concerned. To reach the required surface tension in thespherical seating furniture a relatively high gas pressure must beapplied, which is disadvantageous for obtaining an optimal seatingcomfort. On the one hand the seating stability becomes too low, and onthe other hand the spring action will remain very limited. Furthermorethis seating furniture is susceptible to variation in the surroundingtemperature which results in a too low/ too high gas pressure in theinternal space thereby directly affecting the shape and its seatingproperties. Another restriction lies in the susceptibility to mechanicaldamage by a sharp object when the seating furniture is used outside. Inanother embodiment, according to U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,184, a sphericalseating furniture is provided with thin gas permeable internal andexternal segments. The seating furniture is filled up with a pluralityof polyurethanes foam particles for increasing the seating comfort andshape-retaining property. The essence of this object is based in thespecial design of the shell elements, whereby the sphere-shape isobtained by mutually interconnecting two parallelly positioned circularsegments with a square shell segment positioned in between. Thisconstruction misses a sufficient, so-called, memory effect, in otherwords the property that a deformation caused by the weight load of asitting person will disappear when this person rises. Another majordisadvantage is the complex construction with two shells resulting in ahigh susceptibility to mechanical damages.

In its special embodiment according to the invention the new lightweight seating furniture construction with memory effect offers anoptimal solution for the above mentioned problems. This memory effect isunderstood as to mean that after the removal of the sitting load causedby a sifting person, which results in great deformation, the seatingfurniture construction completely regains its original shape.

The essence of the invention is the application of a special seatingfurniture construction, which is provided with a spring back skeletoncomprising a plurality of geometrically shaped, air permeable, shellshaping, sheet elements that are mutually interconnected into aspherical shell by means of adhesive means. The aforesaid sheet elementsare constructed from porous, spring back, natural material, like e.g.foam rubber or plastic material, like e.g. poly-ethylene, or anotherusual material for construction of e.g. mattresses.

The geometrically shaped, air permeable, shell shaping, sheet elementsused as basic elements, may have all known shapes like e.g. a triangle,a quadrilateral, a pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon etc., or acombination thereof. The mutual interconnection of the flat connectingsurfaces of said shell elements is affected with adhesive means, likee.g. a tixotropic adhesive, which can be applied and distributed easilyover the connecting surfaces. After the drying/hardening of the adhesivemeans, and the inherently increased stiffness at the position of theinterconnections, these connecting surfaces will subsequently form askeleton structure for obtaining a high memory effect for the completeshell construction.

The hollow internal space enclosed by the shell construction will bepartially filled with an number of relatively small particles (grains)manufactured from a natural or plastic material, as e.g. polystyrenefoam. These shape-retaining grains essentially are used to support thetemporary shape-retaining property of the shell construction.

When a person sits or lies down on the seating furniture thy shellconstruction will be deformed and the grains on the inside will movelike a liquid. This results in a stable, and thus comfortabledistribution of the pressure around the body of the sitting or layingperson. When the person rises, the spring back skeleton will regain itsoriginal sphere-shape, whereby the grains will be displayed again. Thesegrains can be filled directly into the hollow space of the shellconstruction, but they may also be packed in a suitable, air permeable,wide flexible| cover like a bag or the like.

In a certain embodiment, e.g. a smaller seating furniture for children,the furniture construction can be constructed from two sphere-segments,e.g. two halves of a sphere. The effect of a flexible skeleton structurewith high memory effect property may be obtained by means of theintegration of suitable separate skeleton segments in saidsphere-segments during its manufacture, as e.g. during the mouldingprocess. These skeleton element, as were the real bones of a skeleton,may be manufactured e.g. from plastic or another spring, back material.

By application of said light weight furniture construction whichmaintains its shape-retaining properties during sitting or lying down,the seating furniture can easily be moved e.g. by rolling over thefloor. Furthermore on the one hand this seating furniture has a highaesthetic value and is therefore very suitable for advertisements andmarketing purposes. The seating furniture may be shaped as a playingball or as a celestial body (globe, moon etc.) and/or it may be providedon its external surface with one or more pictures, colour surfaces,advertisements, logo's etc.

The invention will now be described, by means of embodiments thereof,with reference to the accompanying drawings 1-11 wherein:

FIG. 1 is an known spherical seating furniture according ti U.S. Pat.No. 6,279,184;

FIG. 2 is a seating furniture during use, according to the invention;

FIG. 3 is a side view of a number of mutually interconnected shellshaping sheet elements of the spherical light weight seating furnitureconstruction with increased memory effect according to the invention;

FIG. 4 is a side view of a greater number of mutually into connectedshell shaping sheet elements than shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a side view of the spherical light weight seating furnitureconstruction with increased memory effect whereby only one sheet elementis missing according to the invention;

FIG. 6 is a side view of spherical light weight furniture constructionwith increased memory effect, partially enclosed (covered) wish adecorative/protective cover layer;

FIG. 7 is a side view of complete seating furniture/obtained by applyingthe spherical light weight seating furniture construction;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of a number of other three-dimensionalembodiments of the light weight seating construction with increasedmemory effect;

FIG. 9 is a schematic view of a number of other embodiments of thenearly spherical light weight seating construction wits increased memoryeffect;

FIG. 10 is a schematic view of a number of embodiments of the patternsof the base elements for use in the spherical light weight seatingconstruction with increased memory effect;

FIG. 11 is a schematic view of a number of other embodiments of patternsof the base elements for use in a spherical light weight seatingfurniture construction with increased memory effect.

According to FIG. 1 the known seating furniture X in U.S. Pat. No.6,279,184 is provided with thin, gas permeable, internal and externalsurface segments —a left segment 1 and a right segment 2—and interposeda square shell segment 3. Square shell segment 3 and also the free endsof the internal surface segments (not shown) are closed by means of anoblong portion 4.

A seating furniture 5 according to the invention with a thereon seatedperson 6 is shown in FIG. 2, whereby the dimensions and the spring backof the seating furniture 5 are adjusted for use by a grown up person 6.

In another embodiment of the seating construction according to theinvention the pentagonal and hexagonal base elements are in such a waycombined and mutually interconnected, that the known shape of a soccerball (older types) is obtained. [FIGS. 3-7 show some phases of theassembly of the seating furniture construction and seating furnitureresulting there from]

FIG. 3 shows a base pattern of shell shaping sheet elements 7,8constructed from a central pentagonal element 7 which is surrounded byfive hexagonal elements 8. According to FIG. 4 this base pattern may beextended further by a number of pentagonal elements 7 or hexagonalelements 8 respectively thereby enclosing sphere-shape 9. According toFIG. 5 the pentagonal elements 7 and hexagonal elements 8 assembledseating furniture 9 misses the last closing pentagon element. In thisphase the seating furniture construction 9 may be partially orcompletely filled with a number of relatively small shape-retaininggrains (not shown) manufactured from natural or plastic material andthereupon sealed with a pentagonal element (not shown). Furthermore thisseating furniture construction may be finished with adecorative/protective cover 10, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. In FIG. 6 theseating furniture construction 9 is a partially enclosed (covered)version with a cover 10. According to FIG. 7 the cover is completelymounted and as an enclosing cover mounted on the seating furniture 9respectively, thereby completing the seating furniture as shown in FIG.2.

An overview of other alternative possible three-dimensional embodimentsof the seating furniture according to invention is shown in FIGS. 8 and9. In FIG. 8 are shown the tetrahedron 11, cube 12, octahedron 13,dodecahedron 14, icosahedron 15, truncated octahedron 16, cuboctahedron17, truncated cube 18, and truncated octahedron 19. Further in FIG. 9are shown small rhombicuboctahedron 20, great rhombicuboctahedron 21,snub cube 22, icosidodecahedron 23, truncated dodecahedron 24, truncatedicosahedron 25, small rhombicosidodecahedron 26 an greatrhombicosidodecahedron 27. Some of the different possible pattern-shapesfor use in a seating furniture construction according to invention areshown in FIGS. 10 and 11. Shown are patterns constructed from:hexagon/semi-triangle 28, hexagon/quadrilateral/triangle 29,dodecagon/hexagon/quadrilateral 30 and octagon/quadrilateral 31.Furthermore in FIG. 11 are shown two shape variations of aquadrilateral/triangle pattern 32 a and 32 b and also two shapevariations of a hexagon/triangle 33 a and 33 b.

It is obvious that within the scope of the invention an unlimited amountof similar solutions will be possible. For advertising purposes theseating or lying down furniture may have the shape of a beer can or of amagnum ice cream or similar. When a small three-dimensional shape ase.g. a baby chair is chosen, it can be established by experiment how thethickness of the wall of the skeleton material corresponds to therequired seating shape-retaining property and even if the filling withgrains can be omitted. With a cylindrical three-dimensional shape theseating furniture can offer place to two or more persons or can be usedas a couch. To put it shortly many applications may be thought of basedon the same principles of the invention.

1. Light weight seating furniture construction, comprising: a. a shellconstruction which is deformable under seating load, which constructionconsists of geometrically shaped air permeable shell shaping sheetelements manufactured from porous natural or plastic material having theproperty to spring back in its original shape, and wherein the shellconstruction is provided internally with a hollow internal space whichis partially filled with b. a number of relatively small shape-retainingparticles for support and advancement of the temporary shape-retainingproperty of the shell construction once a person is seated thereupon,which particles are manufactured from natural or plastic material andwhich particles are optionally packed in a suitable air permeable cover.2. Light weight seating furniture construction with memory effectaccording to claim 1, wherein the shell structure is obtained with aplurality of geometrically shaped air permeable sheet elements togethershaping the shell, which are mutually interconnected into athree-dimensional geometrical shell by adhesive means.
 3. Light weightseating furniture construction with memory effect according to claim 1,wherein the high memory effect operation of the shell is obtained byfully integrating to suitable different skeleton segments into the shellconstruction as three-dimensionally shaped geometrical segments. 4.Light weight seating furniture construction according to claim 1,wherein the geometrically shaped three-dimensional shell elements of theshell construction are provided with a geometrically polygonal shape. 5.Light weight seating furniture construction according to claim 1,wherein the shell construction has the appearance of an imperfectsphere-shape of a tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron,icosahedron, truncated tetrahedron, cuboctahedron, truncated cube,truncated octahedron, small rhombicuboctahedron, greatrhombicuboctahedron, snub cube, icosidodecahedron, truncateddodecahedron, truncated icosahedron, small or greatrhombicosidodecahedron, or of a combined (hybrid) shape thereof. 6.Light weight seating furniture obtained by using the light weightseating furniture construction according claim 1, wherein said furnitureis in the shape of a great playing ball ball or as a celestial body(globe, moon, etc.) and/or is provided on it external surface with oneor more images, color area's, advertisements, or logos.
 7. Light weightseating furniture obtained by using the light weight seating furnitureconstruction according to claim 1, wherein geometrically shaped airpermeable shell shaping sheet elements having an external diameterbetween 50 and 200 cm and a wall thickness of at least 3 to 20 cm.